Introduction to Electrostatics and History of charge

Hi! My name is R. K. Singh and this is my first article, but be sure, my articles will not be a repeat of your book, but they will be complimentary to the book. My articles will support your book and your book will support the articles. Besides the regular course, I would stress the concept and would make you see beyond the equations, beyond the concepts. I will show you that whether you like or not, the Physics is beautiful and you may even start to like it. I suggest you don’t sleep up even in worm days. It’s not easy. We have new concepts every week, and before you know you may be too far behind.

We are going to talk about electricity and magnetism so we should know that they are all around us. We have electric lights, we have microphones, calculators, televisions, VCR, computer, fan, freeze, cooler, ac..., torch..., radio..., etc. Light itself is an electromagnetic phenomenon as radio waves are. The colours of rainbow in blue sky are there because of electricity.trains, Cars, planes, can only run because of electricity, for running horses need electricity because muscle contractions are not possible without electricity. Even your nerve system is driven by electricity. Even atoms, molecules, all chemical reactions can not exist without electricity. When you are seeing something, you are using electricity. Your heart would not beat without electricity, and you couldn’t even think without electricity, though I realize that even with electricity some of us may have a problem with that.

History of Electricity

6th century B.C. Thales observed that when amber rubbed with wool is capable of attracting bits of straw. The science of electricity has roots in this observation.

De Magnete published in 1600 A.D. William Gilbertgave the first scientific account of the early experience of electricity and magnets. He stated :

In all experiments of electricity (frictional) only two kinds of electricity is produced.

While electricity of same kind repel each other, of opposite kind attract each other.

The kind of electricity developed on amber was called - resinous. The type of electricity developed on wool was called vitreous.

In later days, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) introduced a convention according to which the kind of electricity which appears on glass will be called +ve, while that of amber or ebonite will be called -ve. SoVitreous - PositiveResinous - Negative